Press associations call on Hong Kong police to curb attacks on journalists covering anti-government protests
- Hong Kong Journalists Association and Hong Kong Press Photographers Association say press are subject to increasing aggression by police
- Both groups also dismiss police claims there are fake reporters among press, saying only one case of a fake press card has been reported
Two press associations on Thursday jointly called on police to stop what they described as the increasing violence and even attacks – both physical and verbal – against frontline journalists covering the city’s ongoing anti-government protests.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has received 42 complaints involving officers abusing reporters and cameramen over the past three months, but it believes it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Together with the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA), the HKJA gave more details of police violence, in cases when a number of reporters were pepper-sprayed in Mong Kok last Saturday, and reporters being called “black reporters” by officers, and having bright torches trained on them to make filming difficult.
“There are growing hostile elements among the police force, or at least a sizeable segment of it, towards journalists, as shown in their deeds and words,” HKJA chairman Chris Yeung Kin-hing said. “Press freedom is under threat.” Both associations rejected police’s claims that there were “fake reporters” and that reporters had blocked police operation.
Yeung said they had found only one single case of an allegedly fake press card over the past months. They had reported the case to the police, which rejected a formal investigation and only followed the case up after the HKJA issued a public statement in mid-August.